NEWPORT BEACH – A 45-year-old man was arrested Thursday night after reportedly firing a gunshot over the heads of a group of young people at a fire ring near the Balboa Pier, police said.

Edward Joseph O’Neill, owner of the Ho Sum Bistro on Newport Boulevard and who lives in a beachfront home on the 900 block of East Ocean Front, accosted the group at about 8:20 p.m. and then fired a shot in their direction, said Newport Beach police Sgt. Mike McDermott.

“They were young people who worked at Disney and had come to the beach to have a good time,” McDermott said. “We didn’t find any drugs or alcohol, they didn’t have boom boxes or fireworks, they don’t seem to have been making that much noise and it was at a time when the beach was open.”

McDermott said O’Neill fled to his nearby home, about 100 yards from the fire ring, and police surrounded it.

“He tried to sneak out a back window and we arrested him,” the sergeant said. He said officers with a search warrant seized the gun believed to have been used, along with several other firearms.

O’Neill was taken to the Orange County Jail and booked on suspicion of assault on a person with a deadly weapon. Bail was set at $50,000.